What Causes Truck Accidents, and How Can it Affect Your Injury Settlement?

Commercial truck accidents have unique causes, and proving those contributing factors during a lawsuit helps maximize your financial recovery.

Finding the cause of a truck accident is crucial for a lawsuit. Identifying all responsible parties could mean the difference between a dignified life and permanent losses when it comes to the severity of your injuries, and the financial cost of recovery. An experienced truck accident lawyer knows how to investigate a crash, and calculate the damages in court.

Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann is a personal injury firm headquartered in Alabama. Our attorneys are regularly recognized for their professionalism, victories, and contributions to the community. We are ready to take your call and represent your case after the tragedy of a large truck accident.

We can be reached online or by calling (205) 322-8880 directly. Your decision to pursue legal action today could improve your life, protect your family, and help prevent future accidents from injuring others.

What Do Truck Accident Settlements Cover?

If you’ve been injured in a truck accident, a settlement or damages award could help cover:

• The cost of hospital bills and your ongoing medical treatment
• The loss of wages, employment, and/or employment-related benefits like health insurance
• The pain and suffering experienced when hit with life-altering injuries and changes in circumstance
• Punitive damages, which are fees charged to the negligent party, and then awarded to you by a judge
• Wrongful death expenses for the surviving family members of someone lost in or due to a fatal truck accident

By pursuing a lawsuit, your lawyer is able to itemize all that has been lost, and calculate the true cost of long-term recovery or long-term care. Truck accident injuries may be so serious that a person never fully recovers, and requires life-long nursing or therapy. The more experience your attorney has in successfully negotiating truck accident settlements or winning at trial, the better your outcome. Contact Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann at (205) 322-8880 for a stellar team with the case results you need.

What causes truck accidents matters greatly when it comes to who is held liable for your injuries.

What Are the Most Common Causes of Truck Accidents?

The top five most common causes of truck accidents include:

1. Speeding: This is a common cause in car accidents too, but due to the weight of commercial and transport trucks, greater speeds mean devastating injuries. Large trucks cannot stop as quickly as smaller vehicles, and their drivers may be under unsafe pressure to deliver their cargo as quickly as possible.
2. Driver fatigue: Distractions in large trucks include radios and other electronic devices, items which can draw the attention of a fatigued driver at dangerous moments. Long distance trucking requires regular breaks for driver health and the safety of all other vehicles on the road. Hours of service violations made by the driver or imposed by their superior could lead to deadly crashes.
3. Severe weather and road conditions: Icy roads, flooded roads, and strong winds can turn large trucks into dangerous missiles, causing them to move unpredictably at high speeds. Likewise, road construction that would be easily maneuvered through by a smaller vehicle can lead to impossible predicaments for large trucks. One wrong move from a truck driver could cause jack-knifing, turn-over, or a deadly pile-up of other vehicles.
4. Overloaded or improperly loaded cargo: Truck drivers have to trust that their cargo has been loaded properly to balance the weight they’re carrying and secure any infectious or explosive materials. If the cargo isn’t packed correctly, the liability of the resulting damage should be shared across all responsible parties.
5. Mechanical failure: While driver errors are the most frequent causes of truck accidents, brake or vehicle failure can sabotage even the most competent and experienced driver. Whether due to poor fleet maintenance or defective manufacturing on integral parts, these failures are avoidable, and therefore unacceptable.

What causes most semi-truck accidents includes some of the same causes of regular commuter accidents: distracted driving, aggressive driving, and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

However, there are unique causes of commercial truck accidents like cargo issues, vehicle weight and maintenance, and the higher likelihood of driver fatigue due to financial pressure to finish the job fast. These factors too often come together in a perfect storm, and can ruin or even end an unsuspecting person’s life.

How Many Accidents Are Caused by Semi-Trucks?

Statistics on semi-truck, 18-wheeler, and tractor trailer accidents show that:

• Large truck accidents make up roughly 6.5% of total accidents each year, but about 69% of all fatal road accidents. (FMCSA)
• Big rigs crash with, injure, or kill a person every 15 minutes in the United States, and 98% of the fatalities that occur in large truck accidents happen to the people in the other vehicles (cars, passenger trucks, and motorcycles), not the commercial truck drivers. (IIHS)
• The cost of motor vehicle accidents exceeds $75 billion each year in medical care and productivity losses. (CDC)

After an accident, pinpointing the cause or causes of the wreck matters for the sake of your recovery, and the future financial security of your family. Your attorney from Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann will investigate to identify every contributing cause of the accident. This unlocks the maximum amount of resources beyond what insurance companies first offer.

Why Are Trucking Accidents a Serious Issue?

There are many car accidents that occur every day in the U.S., and many of them are walk-away-from-it incidents. That is not so true when it comes to big rig and semi-truck accidents, as the size, weight, and speed of commercial trucks often cause debilitating injuries and death.

By revealing every point of failure like driver error, mechanical malfunction, or managerial negligence, your attorneys maximize your compensation. These investigations also reveal safety flaws that may be fixed in time to save future lives.

Contact Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann via our online form, or by calling (205) 322-8880 directly. Your communications with us are confidential, and your case evaluation is free. Let us do the work to help you pursue justice.